Wednesday May 23rd marked the first anniversary of the Marawi Siege and the declaration of martial law. There were many activities to mark the occasion.
I guess they could not afford doves.
Despite the city having been liberated for seven months threats continue to linger.
But all those threats must be pushed through and overcome. It's time to start rebuilding. And what a mess that is going to be. First there is the issue of land. Like the rest of the country Marawi is plagued with problems over who owns the land.
Many residents do not have official titles for the land they occupy while those who do have titles might find them overlapping with other claims. Government maps are not always reliable either.
There’s paranoia that the situation will make it easy for the government to take the land for its plans to widen roads, make way for easements on both sides of Agus River, and other public infrastructure.
The messy land ownership in Marawi is going to complicate the rehabilitation work and the government knows it.
“It will be a problem. It will take time. It will be a lot of work. There will be frustrations for the losers and winners will be rewarded with a title later on,” Assistant Secretary Felix Castro Jr, manager of the Task Force Bangon Marawi (TFBM) Field Office, told Rappler.
There are many ways it can get complicated. At a consultation meeting, resident Drieza Lininding asked the government to also stop banks from taking mortgaged land in the battle area.
He said there are cases when relatives were able to mortgage the lots without informing the occupants.
“Our appeal is for the government to allow moratorium so that owners of affected lands or properties could settle their debt and made aware of this,” Lininding said.
“Some do not know that their land or properties were already mortgaged by some unscrupulous people, some maybe their relatives, so we need to look into this before touching or taking anything inside MAA [the Most Affected Area],” he said.
On May 10, the battle area was closed again to residents. The groundbreaking ceremony for the rehabilitation – which will begin with the demolition of structures – is scheduled in June.
The contract for the rehabilitation work has yet to be awarded. The design plans of Chinese-led Bangon Marawi Consortium, which government handpicked, will be subjected to a Swiss challenge.
But the experts also warned against starting demolition before resolving land disputes. “Debris clearing can only be done after the proper documentation of rights and ownership on housing, land, and property,” according to the report published by TAF.
There might be a situation where the remaining walls may be the only evidence to mark where properties begin and end.
“Given the lack of comprehensive land records, it is important that these claims and their links to any existing physical features be documented before prematurely clearing and developing the most affected area,” the report said.
"The messy land ownership in Marawi is going to complicate the rehabilitation work and the government knows it." That says it all really. Rebuilding Marawi will not be easy. People will end up losing land they thought they owned but didn't or really did own but can't prove ownership. Fake land titles, squatting, and buying land but not possessing a title are common problems throughout the country and in Marawi this will all come to a head.
Riga, for one, has no legal land title for the ancestral house that she had inherited. She would have no proof of land ownership to show when the government begins rehabilitation in June.
“The rumor is, Muslims will not get their homes back anymore because Duterte will take them,” Riga told Rappler, claiming she heard this same information from fellow Muslims, and on the internet.
“With Muslims, if the house that you live in is from your ancestors, it is also yours, even without titles,” she added.
Dr Potre Dirampatan-Diampuan, senior interfaith representative for the Philippines at United Religious Initiative and a Maranao herself, shared that her family too is burdened by the issue of land ownership as their ancestral house in Marawi, built since 1948, was also inherited without formal titles.
“I know very well who lives on the house on my left, and on my right because their houses were also just as old as ours. Is that not a guarantee? That I know who has lived there? And they know who lives in mine? Can’t we use that?” Diampuan asked.
In a report published by The Asia Foundation in April, planning experts Ica Fernandez, David Garcia, and Assad Baunto noted that this should be a viable option.
“Community-led rehabilitation is about the sharing of knowledge, spaces, and power between government, civilians, and the private sector,” the report said.
“Executing community-led rehabilitation requires deeper representation of traditional leaders and community members in mapmaking, decision-making, and placemaking, across the formal and informal reconstruction mechanisms," it added.
Unfortunately, many Muslims do not feel that the plans for rehabilitation are centered on their own needs.
Since the war broke, the programs for Marawi have focused their slogans and taglines on building a “better” Marawi than ever before. Diampuan said she is unsure if this means better for the residents, or for the planners.
“Improvement and development is relative. We define our own development,” Diampuan said. “If they could improve our water system, sewerage system, and electricity – where our lights are not blinking – we would welcome that. But road expansions? We don’t need that. Our lands are not for sale.”
She said the planners should consider important questions: What’s their culture? What’s their religion? Do they need this at all?
“Do not plan [for Marawi] if you are not from Marawi because you don’t know what we need,” Diampuan said before fellow Maranao.
"If you are going to plan [for Marawi], do not feed the imperial north, or imperial Manila to us from Mindanao. We need different things,” she added.
The naivety of these people is shocking to those of us who live in the modern world. A man may be as good as his word but when it comes to land your word is not enough. Deeds, titles, boundary markers are all used to mark off territory and these are then passed on down. Even Abraham bought land and had a title to it. Like everyone in the Philippines they want a better water, sewerage, and electrical system. Good luck with that.
The land ownership mess is not the only obstacle in rebuilding Marawi.
The Liberal Party on Tuesday expressed concern that the two Chinese firms tapped to conduct rehabilitation works in war-torn Marawi City were blacklisted by the World Bank in 2009.
The party noted that China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSEC) and China Geo Engineering Corporation (CGC) were blacklisted due to corrupt practices in the Philippines.
The government has pledged to roll out a total of 892 programs, activities, and projects for Marawi under an ambitious “master plan.” The target completion date for the mammoth venture is by 2022, or before President Rodrigo Duterte bows out of office.
But this master plan has not been finalized and remains framed in loose procurement rules and legal shortcuts—and with a constantly rising financing cost with still uncertain funding.
Not the least of the venture's problems are loopholes in the guidelines on the awarding of project contracts, on-off and token consultation with the affected communities, disjointed work by national and local state agencies, unsettled land rights and reparations claims, and some contractors with little or no creditable track record in civil works, and instead are tied to a string of bad projects, and fraud and corruption cases.
No way will the city be rebuilt by 2022. But it's a great target date because if achieved it will make Duterte look good. Peace with the communists will also make Duterte look good.
President Rodrigo Duterte said the country is succeeding in its war against the communist insurgency, which the military tagged as its goal after the bloody siege in Marawi.
In his speech Thursday, May 26, Duterte cited the military for rearresting Elizalde Cañete, the successor of the late Leonicio Pitao, better known as Commander Parago.
“So the military is quite good in...we’re winning the war actually,” said Duterte.
Cañete, commander of the New People’s Army’s First Pulang Bagani Command, was at the Don Carlos Doctors Hospital in Bukidnon seeking treatment at the time the military arrested him.
This sounds exactly like the attempted arrest of Hapilon in Marawi last year. He was spotted out of the blue and the AFP went in for the kill. The plan to siege Marawi on the 26th was thus preempted. Now the AFP arrests a commander of the NPA not after a battle but while he is lying on a hospital bed.
NPA members also continue to slowly surrender.
The burdens and sufferings they’re experiencing with the unceasing military operations conducted by this unit made up their minds to submit oneself to the folds of law.
Unless the NPA is fuelled by personalities and not ideology arrests of top commanders and the surrender of an unlucky 13 will not curtail their enthusiasm for overthrowing the government.
On May 21, 2018, unidentified numbers of armed CPP-NPA terrorists burned construction pieces of equipment owned by Big Foot Construction Company used in constructing a farm-to-market road in remote areas in Mabinay.
It can be remembered that on May 10, 2018, these cold-blooded CPP-NPA terrorists also burned a backhoe and bunkhouses of workers of the National Irrigation Administration in their irrigation project at Sitio Tagbak, Brgy Tan-awan, Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental.
LTC DARRELL BAÑEZ said, “It is saddening to note that the tactical offensives are aimed at construction companies building farm-to-market roads who did not yield to the extortion demands of the CPP-NPA Terrorist. This project is for the comfort of the people in the community and will help boost the economic status of this town. We condemn in strongest terms this dastardly act of the CNTs. It only shows that they are anti-development and anti-people which runs contrary to their promise of a better life for the local folks in the remote areas. The mass works that they are doing in these areas are nothing but mere propaganda meant to deceive the people.”
“We commend the bravery of these people who denied to the extortion demands of these heartless and ruthless CPP-NPA terrorists. We are also calling to the Negrenses to continue cooperating with us and report the presence and activities of the CPP-NPA Terrorist in your area,” Bañez added.
Bañez is on to something when he mentions "the extortion demands of the CPP-NPA Terrorist." The so-called revolutionary tax is a problem that must be dealt with.
Congresswoman Nancy Catamco said the alleged “forceful” revolutionary taxation on the residents by the New Peoples’ Army, especially in far-flung areas, is rampant.
She neglects the fact that the NPA is not collecting merely form poor farmers and other residents but also from big businesses and local politicians.
Islamic terrorism continues to be a threat in the region.
Bautista said terrorists organizations such as the Abu Sayyaf, Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, and Khilafa Islamiyah Mindanao are still present in southern Philippines and pose danger to Filipinos.
He, however, said these terrorist groups will take "more or less three to five years" to stage another siege like the five-month long encounter in Marawi.
Bautista also said the military learned a new form of terrorism -- sleeper cells -- from the Maute-ISIS group which is a form of lone wolf tactic that can create terrorist activities in multiple locations.
Only one way to stop all these terrorists. Pass the BBL and set up a de facto Islamic State!
The BBL is picking up steam again in the Congress. Recently the a House committee approved their version of the BBL. Now the Senate is getting back in the game. But they are still wary.
Sotto said that the Senate take on the BBL would be different from the House of Representatives version, which is closer to the one submitted by the Bangsamoro Transition Commission.
He said the Senate is careful in crafting the proposed measure as it could be the template in the federal regions that would be established in the future.
“We’re thinking that the BBL, if we pass it, might become the template for the regional federal states or areas or federal regions," Sotto said.
The Senate chief said during the news forum that their version will be a better version.
“I think we will be able to come up with a conservative but well-crafted proposal. The House is much closer to what the BTC submitted. The bicam(eral conference committee) would take a lot of time, I think," Sotto said at a news forum.
"But we’re also optimistic that if the President see the Senate version, we might get the support in many of the proposals that we want,” he added.
This plan to use the BBL as a template for a proposed federal system is crazy beyond belief because of what's at stake here. The BBL is the government surrendering a piece of Mindanao to Islamic terrorists so they can have their very own Islamic State. The BBL will be populated with and ruled by terrorists, MILF and MNLF. The current comedian Senate President thinks this dangerous unstable situation is the perfect place to carry out political experimentation. If the ARMM is not enough then why would anyone think they would be content with the BBL. The Muslims want nothing less than an state independent of the Philippine government. That is their end goal. Provisions in the current BBL proposals could make that happen.
Philippine National Police Director General Oscar Albayalde has expressed opposition to a proposal under the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) bill that would give the regional chief minister control over the Bangsamoro police force.
Albayalde told reporters on Tuesday that a provision in House Bill No. 6475 giving the chief minister the power “to exercise operational control and supervision and disciplinary powers over the Bangsamoro Police” was unnecessary.
“What we want is for [the setup] to remain as is. Our stand is we will put up a different regional office there [in the Bangsamoro state], even just one … ” he said.
The PNP chief explained that the national uniformed forces should maintain control of their units in the area [which] may otherwise become “politicized” by local powers.
“What we are [trying to avoid] is for them to be controlled, and become a large private armed group there,” Albayalde said.
Albayalde is surely not ignorant that the MILF and MNLF are large private armed groups who control the region and will run the BBL if it ever comes into being.
With the one year anniversary of the declaration of martial law the question was on the lips of many, "When will martial law be lifted?" Then answer:
Armed Forces of the Philippines chief of staff General Carlito Galvez Jr. believes that martial law in Mindanao should continue until all the loose firearms are accounted for and suspected extremist elements are arrested.
Quoting Galvez, Super Radyo dzBB's Benjie Liwanag reported on "Dobol B sa News TV" that lawless elements and a significant number of loose firearms still threaten the peace and development of Mindanao.
So far, only 6,000 (20 percent) of the estimated 30,000 illegally-owned guns have been surrendered, several months into the campaign against loose firearms.
Some 24,000 loose firearms are still unaccounted for, Galvez was quoted as saying.
Likewise Galvez claimed that the implementation of martial law in Mindanao has been effective and accepted well by the people.
"Certainly one year after the siege, the time to lift martial law is not yet here. It will be lifted as long as there is no need for martial law," Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said.
What are the criteria for lifting martial law? The 100% complete extermination of terrorists? But the MNLF and MILF are walking around with impunity. The gathering of all loose firearms? Sisyphean tasks indeed! The crux is Galvez's claim that the people of Mindanao love martial law. Surely if the people love martial law then it must be a great thing to have.
“People we have spoken to, they love martial law. Peace-loving people have seen the remarkable improvement in peace and order,” Gen. Carlito Galvez, chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, told reporters on Thursday.
“They no longer see guns in the streets. These [firearms] are now concealed,” Galvez said, adding that 6,000 firearms had been seized by security forces in Mindanao since January.
Do these people not realise that saying martial law has contributed to a remarkable improvement in peace and order only confirms the fact that Mindanao is a land of lawless violence despite every attempt to paint it as a place that is not so bad? When martial law is inevitably lifted will these concealed guns appear once more in plain sight?
It was announced yesterday by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Chief of Staff Gen. Carlito Galvez united cry and desire of the majority of residents in the Mindanao peace-loving.
"What we are seeing in Mindanao, martial law is being appreciated, the rest they say we want martial law forever here in Mindanao, it says that because they because they see that martial law is being implemented against lawless elements" Galvez explained that currently in Marawi City.
Forever? Forever ever ever? Be careful what you wish for!
